1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to plate heat exchangers and also to particular applications of the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a general way heat exchangers are known with very different designs, according to a variety of functional necessities.
In the art of plate heat exchangers there are dismountable ones, made of a stack of corrugated plates, with hermetic gaskets around their periphery which maintain a suitable gap between the said plates.
Heat exchangers with fixed corrugated plates mounted in a housing with spacers and fixed for example by glueing, are also known. The corrugations cause turbulence in the fluid flow, which giving structural rigidity at the same time.
The prior art also includes pocket shaped heat exchangers made of rigid plates with spacers, fixed by soldering for example. Well known are the plate heat exchangers with primary and secondary surfaces made as an assembly of flat metallic sheets. In such heat exchangers, pressed sheets act as spacers and as secondary heat exchanging fins, and the assembly is finished by soldering or brazing.
Furthermore, different designs of heat exchanger plates have been described in specialized literature. Up to now they have not come into general use, probably due to problems subsisting in connection with assembly and fluid collection.